Above: Japanese Ambassador-designate Yoshimasa Tekuza and Nevis Premier Joseph Parry

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The government of Japan and the Nevis Island Administration have signed an agreement for an $11 million grant to support the planned Charlestown Community Fisheries Complex at Gallows Bay.

“What we are looking at is a cog in a whole wheel, and efforts to have a whole development policy for the island of Nevis,” said Nevis Premier Joseph Parry. “It is not just a matter of fisheries.”

Parry thanked Japan’s government for honouring its pledge, despite the devastating earthquake that hit the country.

The Japanese delegation was led by Yoshimasa Tezuka, the Trinidad-based Japanese Ambasador-designate for Nevis, along with his wife, Chiruzu Tezuka, and other officials.

“Japan has been a nation of its word,” Parry told the Ambassador. “After that catastrophic disaster in your country, I was worried that you would say that Nevis would have to wait three years or five years, and that would have been reasonable.”

Parry also thanked St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas for his support in obtaining the grant.

“I want to say that all of us Nevisians should embrace this project,” Parry said. “Understand what it means as it stands by itself, but understand what it means when you put it together with all the other efforts that you are making.”